A Violent Culture

A Violent Culture

In the United States, we live in a culture where interpersonal violence continues to be a major and very expensive problem. In the 2013 version of Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies, some updated statistics from 1997 to 2012 were documented around violence to children, to women, and to men along with the violence perpetrated by guns.

Violence to Children

1997

Hitting children is virtually universal; 25 percent of infants one to six months are hit, and this rises to 50 percent of all infants by six months to a year [1]

Over ninety percent of Americans parents have assaulted their children[1]. It may be called spanking, or discipline, or just a slap, but the same behavior between adults would be grounds for criminal proceedings.

By parents' own report, 5 percent of parents punish their children by punching, kicking or throwing the children down, or hitting the child with a hard object on some part of the body other than the bottom[2].

According to a recent Gallup poll of parents, 1.3 million children a year are sexually abused [2].

In 1992 alone, 2.94 million cases of child abuse and neglect were re­ ported in the United States, and in the same year, an estimated 1,261 children died from abuse and neglect. One estimate is that the rate of child neglect alone is 14.6 per 10,000 children [3].

According to the U.S. Government-sponsored National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, between 1986 and 1993 and under a restrictive standard of harm, the estimated number of sexually abused children rose by 83 percent, the estimated number of physically neglected children rose by 102 percent, the estimated number of emotion­ ally neglected children rose by 333 percent, and the estimated number of physically abused children increased by42 percent [4].

In five studies of sexual abuse of women between 1940 and 1978, one­ fifth to one-third of all women reported that they had had some sort of childhood sexual encounter with an adult male [5].

The number of children traumatized in the United States in a single year equals the number of combat veterans who served in Vietnam for a decade [6].

According to a Department of Justice study, for every violent and sexual offense committed by a youth under 18, there are three such crimes committed by adults against children and teens [7].

2013

And now in 2012, statistics over the past decade show that:

According to a UN Secretary General’s study, conservative estimates find that over 275 million children around the world are exposed to violence in their homes [8].

According to the Fourth US government-sponsored National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect over 1.25 million children, or 1 in every 58 children, experienced maltreatment during the study year of 2005-2006, under the strict definition of the harm standard. This demonstrated a 19 percent decrease in maltreatment since the last study in 1993 [9].

However, in the same study, the more broadly defined endangerment standard indicated that 3 million children, or 1 in every 25 children in the U.S. experienced endangerment standard maltreatment. The number of emotionally neglected children increased by a rate of 83 percent- more than double of the number recorded in the 1993 study [9].

In 2010, and estimated 1,560 children died in the U.S. as a result of abuse and neglect, according to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System [10]. This is likely a conservative estimate, as researchers report that half of child fatality cases are not recorded as such [11]. Exposure to childhood abuse and neglect increases likelihood of violence later in life. These children are 59 percent more likely to be arrested before the age of 18, 28 percent more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30 percent more likely to commit violent crime [12].

Intergenerational violence then continues; as around 30 percent of children who are abused and neglected will go on to abuse their own children [12].

Violence to children impacts mental health burden of disease. It is estimated that 80 percent of 21 year olds abused as children met criteria for at least 1 psychological disorder [12].

This country’s children suffer from some of the highest rates of poverty, hunger, and infant mortality in the industrialized world [13]. Consider these facts and statistics:

Nearly 14 million children in the U.S.—19% of all children—live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2010)[14].

Children represent 24 % of the U.S. population but comprise 34% of all people living poverty [14].

U.S. poverty rates rose to the highest level in 11years in 2008. In 2009, 14.3% of the U.S. population had income below their respective poverty thresholds[15].

In a representative national sample of over 43,000 people, child physical abuse was reported by 8% of the sample and was frequently accompanied by other childhood adversities. Child physical abuse was associated with signiﬁcantly associated with a broad range of DSM-IV psychiatric disorders, especially attention-deﬁcit hyperactivity disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder. A dose-response relationship was observed between frequency of abuse and several adult psychiatric disorder groups; higher frequencies of assault were signiﬁcantly associated with increasing odds. “The long-lasting deleterious effects of child physical abuse underscore the urgency of developing public health policies aimed at early recognition and prevention”[16]

Violence to Women

1997

Gelles and Straus have estimated based on probability sampling that from 2 million to 3 million women are assaulted by male partners each year in the United States and that 21 percent to 34 percent of all women will be assaulted during adulthood by a male with whom they are intimate [17] .

More than 50 percent of all women will experience some form of violence from their spouses during marriage; more than one-third of these are battered repeatedly every year; 15 percent to 25 percent of pregnant women are battered [3].

Violence kills as many women every five years as the total number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War [3].

An American woman is four times more likely to be attacked at home by a person she knows than attacked at home by a stranger.

Every year, domestic violence results in almost 100,000 days of hospitalizations, almost 30,000 emergency department visits, and almost 40,000 visits to physicians [3].

Rape or sexual assault victimizations made up 65 percent of unreported crimes from 2006-2010 [22].

Among women who were raped, over 51 percent reported being raped by an intimate partner [23].

Almost 1 in 5 women has been raped at some time in her life [23].

As of June, 2006, over 203,000 women are imprisoned, a 64% jump since 1995

Violence to Men

1997

Self-inflicted injury among males ages 10 to 44 grew by 76 percent over the four years of a study of a Philadelphia African American neighborhood [24].

In 1991, approximately 20,000 males ages 12 and over were sexually assaulted [25].

Overall, in terms of the effects of all forms of violence on boys, a Massachusetts study estimated that 1 in 42 teenage boys receive hospital treatment for some form of assault [26].

Compared to other countries such as England, France, Japan, Canada, and West Germany, a 16 to 29 fold differential separates prime risk American males, ages 25 to 34 from their foreign counterparts [27].

2013

And in the past decade:

Among men who have been raped, 28 percent were first raped before the age of 10 [23].

In 2010, 1 in 7 men reported experiencing severe physical abuse by an intimate partner, according to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey[23].

According to the CDC, among 10-24 year olds 86 percent of homicide victims were male [28].

The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. At year-end 2009 it was 743 adults incarcerated per 100,000 population.

Over 2 million prisoners are held in federal and state prisons or local jails which gives the U.S. one-quarter of the world’s 8 million prisoners; 60% of these are functionally illiterate - over 200,000 of them are women; the rest are men

More black men are behind bars or under the watch of the criminal justice system than there were enslaved in 1850, according to the author of a book about racial discrimination and criminal justice [29].

More than 846,000 black men were incarcerated in 2008, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice estimates. African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population according to census data, but black men reportedly make up 40.2 percent of all prison inmates.

Since 1990, the U.S. prison population, already the world's largest, has almost doubled.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics says that nearly one in 10 prisoners report having been raped or sexually assaulted by other inmates, staff or both [30].

Violence At School

1997

From Time magazine, January 25 1993, some statistics for every school day: At least 100,000 students tote guns in school, 160,000 skip classes because they fear physical harm, 40 are hurt or killed, 6,250 teachers are threatened with bodily injury, and 260 are physically assaulted. These statistics came from the National Education Association.

A recent Centers for Disease Control report shows that the murder rate for 15- to 19-year-olds jumped 154 percent between 1985 and 1991, and the increase was largely a result of gun violence [31].

The attitudes of children may be just as frightening as the numbers of actual incidents. Twenty percent of suburban high schoolers endorsed shooting someone "who has stolen something from you," and 8 percent said it is all right to shoot a person "who had done something to offend or insult you"[32].

In a 1993 national study of 1,700 sixth-to-ninth-graders, a majority of

the boys considered rape "acceptable" under certain conditions, and many of the girls agreed [33].

One study indicated that nearly 25 percent of 2,016 college women surveyed had been raped, according to strict legal standards. Another survey revealed that 1,000 rapes were reported on college campuses during the 1991-92 academic year [34].

Ninety-five percent of violent crimes on campuses involved drugs or alcohol. Eighty-six percent of college students under legal age consumed alcohol and nearly 18 percent of this group reported experiencing alcohol-related trouble with police[34] (Nichols 1995).

2013

And in the past decade statistics show that:

In US schools there were 33 school-associated violent deaths between July 1 2009 and June 30, 2010 [35].

Approximately 28 percent of students aged 12-18 reported being bullied at school in 2009 [35].

Among high school males, 10 percent reported being threatened or injured by a weapon while at school [35].

In 2009-2010, 85 percent of schools reported an incident of violence, theft, or crime totaling approximately 1.9 million crimes [35].

Among public school in 2005-2006, 38 percent reported an incidence of violence to the police [36].

In 2007, 5,764 youth ages 10-24 were murdered, which equals about 16 each day [28] .

In 2009, 32 percent of high school students reported being in a physical fight in the past year [37].

The CDC reports that 84 percent of homicide victims aged 10-24 were killed with a firearm, and that homicide was the second leading cause of death of young people [28].

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service recently released an extensive research report that indicated the incidents of college campus violence had drastically increased in the past 20 years [39]

“Targeted violence” in institutions for higher education were evaluated since 1900, 60% of which have occurred in the last two decades, including almost 100 attacks beginning in 2000 [39].

Violence At Work

1997

Workplace violence has tripled in the last decade and is one of the fastest growing types of homicide.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health violence was the third leading cause of workplace death from 1980 to 1985 for men and the leading cause of workplace death for women [40].

In addition, more than 2 million personal thefts and 200,00 car thefts occur at the workplace [41].

More than 30 percent of workplace victims faced armed attackers[41].

Between July 1992 and July 1993, 2.2 million full-time workers were physically attacked on the job, 6.3 million were threatened with violence, and 16.1 million were harassed [18].

One out of every four employees was harassed, threatened, or attacked between July 1992 and July 1993 [42].

The U.S. Justice Department reports that boyfriends and husbands­ current and former-commit more than 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace very year [18].

A National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study shows that between 1980 and 1990, a total of 522 deaths occurred among health care workers on the job, and 106 of these workers were murdered [43].

According to a 1992 survey of 103 California hospitals, 60 percent of the staff had suffered injuries from visitors or patients, usually from guns and knives [44].

In a University of Louisville study done in 1988, of 127 emergency rooms, 41 reported at least one verbal threat against workers a day, 23 reported at least one armed threat per month, and 55 emergency room workers sustained at least one physical assault per month [44].

The numbers are even higher for mental health professionals. Back in 1978 a study showed that 24 percent of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers in a metropolitan area reported being assaulted by one or more patients during a one-year period [45].

A study published in 1992 surveying both a private psychiatric facility with an outpatient community mental health center in a middle-class urban area and a state hospital in a lower-middle class inner-city area showed that 62 percent of the 224 clinical staff surveyed reported that their physical safety had been threatened or that they had witnessed a serious injury or death [46].

Of those attacked, threatened, or harassed, about half experience difficulties at work related to the violence and about one-fourth became physically injured or sick [42].

In the mental health professional study [46], of the 224 clinical staff, 61 percent reported symptoms of PTSD such as intrusive thoughts or increased emotional reactivity. Of those reporting, 10 per­ cent would have been given a DSM-III diagnosis of PTSD. Of the 138 clinicians who reported experiencing traumatic incidents on the job, only 15 percent reported any later external review of the experience by people in positions of authority.

A study of the San Ysidro Massacre showed that 50 percent of law enforcement personnel developed PTSD[48].

In one study of young adults in the Midwest, life threat, seeing others killed or badly injured, and physical assault all produced lifetime PTSD rates of around 25 percent [49].

Rape victims report a PTSD lifetime prevalence of 80 percent. In a national sample of women who had experienced aggravated assault, 39 percent developed PTSD [50].

Of those who experienced traumatic bereavement, 25 percent developed PTSD[51] .

In the same study, crime victims showed a current PTSD rates of 12 percent from sexual assault, 13 percent from rape, 5 percent from traumatic bereavement [51].

PTSD, of course, is rarely found alone, even in community samples. The most common coexisting diagnoses are major depression and sub­ stance abuse, as well as a panoply of other psychiatric and medical disorders [51].

A study of 400 women enrolled in a large HMO who were crime victims showed that they had significantly worse health problems than other women in the HMO and reported symptoms across a wide variety of types of medical symptoms with a dramatically increased utilization of medical services[52].

In a study of 200 postal workers in Northern Ireland who had been involved in robberies on the job, absence for sickness increased by four­ fold following the attacks [53].

A U.S. Department of Justice study found that as a result of workplace violence, more than 500,000 employees miss 1.8 million days of work annually, resulting in more than $55 million in lost wages, not including days covered by sick and annual leave [54].

Violence, threats, and harassment in the workplace cost companies more than $4 billion in lost work and legal expenses in 1992 [18].

According to the National Safe Workplace Institute, the average cost to employers of a single episode of workplace violence can amount to $250,000 in lost work time and legal expenses [18], while 111,000 incidents of workplace violence cost employers an estimated $4.2 billion in 1993[42].

2013

Recent statistics of violence at work show both hope and plenty of room for additional improvement towards nonviolence and workplace health:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 46% all non-fatal assaults and violent acts requiring days away from work were committed against registered nurses [55].

The emergency department is one of the most dangerous work settings in health care for nurses due to violence from patients and visitors[56]

After law enforcement there are more people injured at work who work in mental health than any other occupation [57]

According to the Bureau of Labor there were 506 workplace homicides in the U.S. in 2010. This is a decline of more than 50 percent from the peak in 1994 of 1,080 homicides [58].

The same report from the Bureau of Labor found that while workplace homicides declined in 2010 by 7 percent, an all-time low, workplace homicides involving women increased by 13 percent [58].

The Bureau of Labor reports that non-fatal workplace violence fell by 62 percent between 1993 and 2002, and then declined again by 35 percent from 2002-2009 [59].

The professions with the highest rate of workplace violence between 2005-2009 were law enforcement officers, security guards, and bartenders [59].

Guns

1997

In 1968, U.S. civilians owned about 90 million guns [60]. Now we own more than 200 million, and the number is growing daily.

Of these, approximately one third are handguns and of the handguns, approximately 30 million are semiautomatic weapons [61].

In various reports 6 percent to 20 percent of high school students have carried a gun to school, and in the inner city, 20 percent have been shot at, and the numbers continue to rise [62, 63].

In 1991, of the 24,703 murders that were committed in the United States almost 17,330 were committed with a firearm, and in approximately 14,700 cases the weapon was a handgun [62].

A gun kept in the house is 21 times more likely to kill a family member during an argument [64].

A gun kept in the home for self-defense is 167 times more likely to result in a suicide than in a defensible homicide [64], and guns are twice as likely to be found in the homes of suicide victims as in those of suicide attempters [65].

Of Americans today, one in 360 will die from a bullet, most likely from a 9mm automatic handgun. A person shot with a semiautomatic has on average 2.7 wounds and is three times more likely to die at the scene than if shot with a non-automatic.

In the United States, 35,000 die from bullets each year; 10,000 to 12,000 die from AIDS [66].

A four-year study of Philadelphia neighborhoods completed in 1990 found that gun-related violence increased 179 percent. The same study reported that during the four years of the study 94 percent of men in the age group 20 to 29 had to go to an emergency room at least once with an injury, caused 41 percent of the time by violent encounters [24].

Firearms are far more likely to kill than non-firearm weapons: 60 percent of firearm assaults are fatal, 4 percent of knife assaults are fatal, 1 percent of blunt weapon assaults are fatal [66].

For every death, there are at least 5 non-fatal injuries [67]. Handguns are estimated to cause approximately 100,000 in­ juries per year, and handguns terrorize far more people than they kill [68].

In 1990, firearm injuries cost the nation $20.4 billion: about $1.4 billion for direct expenses, $1.6 billion in lost productivity, and $17.4 bil­ lion due to premature death. Public sources pay 86 percent of the cost of a firearm injury, private sources pay only 14 percent [66].

In a comparison of the similar, nearby cities of Seattle and Vancouver, a citizen in Seattle had a 4.8 times higher risk of being murdered by a handgun than in Vancouver, while the rate of homicide by other means was similar in the two cities [69].

In 1990, there were 10,567 homicides committed with handguns in the United States while in Canada, there were 68[63].

2013

Over the past decade guns have continued to plague our society:

As of 2007, U.S. citizens owned 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world [70].

A 2007 Small Arms Survey reports that while the U.S. maintains less than 5 percent of the world population, we own 35-50 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns [71].

In 2005 11,346 homicide victims were killed by firearms in the U.S. Homicides by firearms peaked in 1993 at over 17,000 deaths. This number declined steadily until 1999, and since 2002 has been back on the rise [72].

In Canada, homicide rates by firearm have declined 23 percent from 2007 to 2010. There were 36 victims of homicide by firearm in 2010 [73].

Firearms were used for 62 percent of the nation’s murders in 2006 [74].

A Gallup poll reports that 67 percent of American gun owners report their firearm is for protection from crime, 66 percent for target shooting, and 41 percent for hunting [75].

It was found that gun violence shortens the life of an average American by 104 days (151 days for white males and 362 days for black males)[76].

Substance Abuse

1997

In a classic study done by Shupe in 1954, 87 percent of 882 persons arrested shortly after committing a crime had measurable alcohol levels in their urine. A recent reanalysis showed that higher alcohol levels were more highly correlated with perpetrators of violent than nonviolent crimes [77].

Overall, the extensive literature on assault and homicide indicates that assailants were under the influence of alcohol in more than half of the violent crimes [77].

One-third to two-thirds of college student rapists and approximately half of their victims had consumed alcohol prior to the rape [78].

Sixty to seventy percent of incest victims say their fathers had been drinking at the time the incest first occurred [79].

Approximately 50 to 60 percent of women and 20 percent of men in chemical dependency recovery programs report having been victims of childhood sexual abuse.

Approximately 69 percent of women and 80 percent of men in such programs report being victims of childhood physical abuse [80].

Yandow estimates that as many as 75 percent of women in treatment for alcoholism have a history of sexual abuse [81].

Between 60 percent and 80 percent of war trauma victims have concurrent diagnoses of alcohol abuse or drug abuse or dependency [82].

Battered women are 15 times more likely than non-battered women to abuse alcohol [83]. Briere reported that 27 percent of sexual abuse victims had a history of alcohol abuse and 21 percent a history of drug abuse, while Herman found that 35 percent of female incest victims abused drugs and alcohol [84].

The numbers of drug abusers rose to 80 percent in a group of female incest survivors who had been inpatients [84].

Of a sample of 2,300 police officers, 23 percent reported drinking problems and another 10 percent said they abused other drugs[85].

2013

Research continues to prove the link between substance abuse and violence in our society:

The criminal justice system was the most common referral source (51 percent) for substance abuse treatment [87].

Nearly 1.5 million adolescents between ages 15 and 17 met the criteria for substance dependence in 2009 [88]

There were three million people aged 12 or older used an illicit drug for the first time within the past year [89].

In 2002, over 17.5 million adults were estimated to have a serious mental illness in the past year, and among them four million were dependent on alcohol or a drug; a co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorder [90].

Pornography

1997

In Chicago, police found that in 100 percent of cases of arrest for child pornography, photos and other evidence documented the actual sexual assault of children by pedophile pornographers [91].

Ninety percent of pornography is geared to male heterosexuals, 10 percent to male homosexuals, and consumers were "predominantly white, middle-class, middle-aged married males"[92].

A telephone survey of 600 respondents in 1985, however, found pornography to be quite accessible to teenagers and younger males. The average age at which males saw their first pornographic magazine was 11 years old. All of the high school male respondents had read or looked at some pornographic magazine. High school males reported having seen an average of 16 issues; junior high school males reported an average of 2.5 issues. The average age for viewing sexually oriented films was 12.5 years. Eighty-four percent of high school students had seen X-rated films, with the average age of first exposure at age 16 to 17[93].

A survey of "adults only" paperbacks available to general public readers published between 1968 and 1974 revealed that one-fifth of all sex scenes involved completed rapes and the number of rapes in the books increased each year of the study [93].

In 1976, one-fifth of all sex episodes in published pornography involved completed rape and the number increased each year; 6 percent involved incestuous rape. Less than 3 percent of the rapists suffered any negative consequences, and many were rewarded [93].

In a content analysis of "adult" videos, 19 percent involved aggression, 13 percent sexual aggression-22 percent of these last were rapes [93].

About 10 percent of the male student population are sexually aroused by very extreme violence, about 20 to 30 percent show substantial sexual arousal to depictions of rape when the women appears to be aroused, about 50 to 60 percent show some degree of sexual arousal by rape when the victim becomes aroused by the end [93].

In addition to increases in themes of aggression and violence in pornographic materials, there has also been an increase in child pornography. A study in 1990 in Britain found that 70 to 80 percent of children contacting a child welfare agency had been involved in some form of child pornography[94].

The U.S. Postal Service found that 80 percent of those it identified as purchasers of child pornography were active abusers[91].

The pornography industry generated about $8 billion in 1984 in the United States alone[95].

Department of Justice figures estimate the child pornography "cottage" industry to be worth between $2 billion to $3 billion a year[95].

2013

And more recent statistics show:

According to the Youth Internet Safety Survey, adolescents between the ages of 10-17 who report intentional exposure to pornography are cross-sectionally more likely exhibit delinquent behavior or abuse use in the past year [96].

Youth exposed to x-rated material are six times more likely to report forcing someone to do something sexual online or in person versus those youth unexposed [97].

In the southwestern US among kids ages 12-15, 53 percent of boys and 28 percent of girls reported using sexually explicit media [98].

Every second, 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography, and $3,075 is being spent every second on pornography [99].

76 percent of victims in internet-initiated sexual exploitation cases were ages 13-15 and 75 percent were girls. According to the authors, "most cases progressed to sexual encounters" and 93% of the face-to-face meetings involved illegal sex [100].

Pornography has been found to contribute to human trafficking. The government estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 individuals are trafficked into the U.S. each year [101].

Todd Akin, Republican Senatorial candidate for Missouri, said during an interview when asked whether abortion should be allowed in the case of rape, responded that it was his understanding from doctors that it’s rare for someone to become pregnant from rape. He said, “The female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down.” [102].

Media Violence

1997

Sixty percent of men on TV are involved in violence, and 11 percent are killers. Prime time television has 5 to 15 violent acts hourly and two murders a night. Unlike actual rates, in the media the majority of homicide victims are women [103].

The negative consequences of violence are not often portrayed in violent programming-84 percent do not depict any long term consequences. Perpetrators go unpunished in 73 percent of all violent scenes [104].

Children's programs are 50 to 60 times more violent than prime time shows. Some cartoons have averaged more than 80 violent acts per hour. By age 18, the typical American child, who watches 28 hours of television a week, will have witnessed 40,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence. By age 18, a child's view of the world, its composition, and the role and characteristics of women, minorities, the disabled, and other groups and individuals will be most profoundly influenced by the content of television programs [103].

Children watch an average of 8,000 murders and 100,000 other violent acts on television before finishing elementary school, according to the American Psychological Association [32].

In a Canadian town in which TV was first introduced in 1973, a 160 percent increase in aggression, hitting, shoving, and biting was documented in first- and second-grade students after exposure, with no change in behavior in children in two control communities[105].

Other studies of long-term exposure support a correlation between viewing TV violence and contact with the criminal justice system even after controlling for the effects of socioeconomic class, education, and race. In men, a strong correlation was found between being convicted of a crime and two of the following: physical abuse by the mother, physical abuse by the father, and exposure to TV violence [106].

2013

And in 2012 statistics show that violence in the media has continued to impact us.

54 percent of American households have three or more televisions [107] .

56% of children ages 8-16 have a television in their rooms[108].

Today’s children ages 8-18 spend 7 hours and 38 minutes a day, or more than 53 hours a week using entertainment media [109].

Results of a 2005 study indicate that video games that reward violent actions, increase aggressive thinking and aggressive behavior [110].

Another study showed that exposure to violence video games can lead to desensitization to real violence. The researchers discovered that individuals exposed to violent video games were less physiologically aroused when exposed to real-life violent videos, than those who didn’t play violent games [111].

The video game Grand Theft Auto 3 was initially banned in Australia because of its violence. By 2002, the game had grossed $300 million in the U.S. [112].

Video games that are violent imply that aggression is a reasonable response to normal conflict, leading some children toward increased aggression [113].

According to the Federal Trade Commission in 2000, market to children under 17 was done for 80 percent of “R” rated movies, 70 percent of restricted video games, and 100 percent of music with “explicit content” warning labels [114].

Prisons

1997

In 1992, 13 million persons were in state and federal prisons, and the number has risen steadily since [115].

According to the Justice Department, from 1980 to 1992 the American state and federal prison population soared nearly 150 percent, from 139 to 344 jailed for every 100,000 of total population-the Western world's highest ratio [116].

More people are behind bars in America than in any other country in the world [115].

In 1992 more than 100,000 children were in correctional institutions [115].

Despite an increasingly punitive attitude toward crime, the U.S. rates of robbery, murder, and rape have tripled since 1960 [117].

Prison has not rehabilitated inmates. About 80.3 percent of male state prisoners and 67.8 percent of female prisoners are recidivists [117].

Of the women in prison, 75 percent of them are mothers and 88 percent of their children are under the age of 18. It is estimated that at the end of 1992, 167,000 children had mothers in prison [117].

In the past decade state and federal annual prison expenses have risen from approximately $12 billion to $24.6 billion with no end in sight [118].

2013

Prisons and violence today:

According to the Department of Justice, from 1980 to 1992 the American state and federal prison population soared nearly 150 percent from 139 to 344 for every 100,000 of the total population [116].

Prisons are overcrowded, contributing to inhumane conditions. In California, state prisons house 154,649 prisoners in 33 prisons intended to hold just 84,271 prisoners [119].

The U.S. imprisons 1 in 200 residents, or 500 sentenced per 100,000 residents. [120]

State and federal corrections had jurisdiction over 1,612,395 prisoners in 2010. This was a decline of 0.3 percent-the first decline since 1972 [120].

Prison releases exceeded prison admissions in 2010 for the first time since 1977 when the Bureau of Justice Statistics started collecting data [120].

Among federal inmates, half were serving time for drug-related offences, while less than 10 percent were violent offenses[120].

In state prisons, 53 percent of inmates were serving time for violent offenses in 2009 [120].

In 2009, states held 2,295 inmates who were under the age of 18 in custody [120].

The rate of male imprisonment in the U.S. is 14 times higher than for females [120].

Economics

1997

The United States has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation [121].

Of people living below the poverty line, 40 percent are children [122].

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 24 percent of all American children under the age of 6 are poor [123].

In the 1980s income for the lowest 40 percent of families declined while income for the top 20 percent rose by almost 30 percent, and in­ come for the top 1 percent rose by 75 percent. In the last decade the proportion of families moving out of poverty declined by 40 percent [124].

Women are the fastest-growing class of impoverished people, heading 24 percent of all poor households in 1960 and 48 percent of all poor households in 1984 [125].

The increase in total salaries of people earning more than $1million per annum went up by 2,184 percent during the 1980s while the total dollars in wages that went to the middle class increased only an average of 4 percent a year [124].

The top 1 percent of American households controls 30.4 percent of the nation's net worth. The next 9 percent hold 36.8 percent of the nation's net worth. The remaining 90 percent of American households only own 32.8 percent of the wealth [121].

The corporate share of taxes went zooming down, accounting for 39 percent in the 1950s and only 17 percent in the 1980s with individuals making up the difference [124].

The salaries and bonuses of the highest-paid executives in America ballooned an average of951 percent between 1975 and 1995, or five times the inflation rate, while the average earnings of more than 73 million blue­ collar and white-collar workers went up just 142 percent, not even keep­ ing up with the inflation rate of 183 percent [121].

The most important sector in international trade is not oil, cars, or planes-it is armaments. Arms sales are incredibly large-at least $900 billion annually. Some experts place the real figures for arms sales at two, three, even four times higher [126].

The U.S. defense budget continues to escalate even though the Cold War supposedly ended. The House recently approved funding that the Pentagon had not even requested [127].

We will spend $2.5 trillion from 1995 to 2005 under Clinton's deficit reduction proposal for the military [128].

In 1988, 33 percent of the federal budget was spent on armaments, while education, social services, and highway construction together amounted to only 15 percent of the budget. It is generally estimated that one-quarter of the U.S. government gross domestic product is militarily oriented. Forty per cent of all U.S. scientists are employed on defense-related projects [126].

2013

And more recent statistics show that:

Annually, the estimated cost of child abuse and neglect in the U.S. in 2008 was $124 billion [129].

Domestic violence is more than three times as likely to happen when couples are under high levels of financial strain, as they are when experiencing low levels of strain [130].

Violence disproportionally affects people living in poverty. Low-income and middle-income countries have rates of violent death that are twice as high as those in high-income countries [131].

Society and the public sector bear the burden of expense for violence. In the U.S. 56-80 percent of the costs for gun and stabbing related injuries is paid by public financing, or not paid at all [132].

Researchers estimate that the annual cost of child abuse in the U.S. was $94 billion, or 1.0% of the gross domestic product [133]

The U.S. spent 4.8 percent of GDP on military expenditures in 2010 [134].

Between 2004 and 2007, at least 31.6 percent of U.S. residents experienced a spell of poverty for two months or more.

Real median household income in 2010 was $49, 445, which was a 2.3 percent decline from 2009. Since 2007, real median household incomes for all race groups declined, and children make up 24.4 percent of the population living in poverty [135].

The richest people – the top 400 families, pay the least amount of federal taxes from 51.2% tax rate in 1955 to 16.6% in 2007 [136]

U.S. global trade policies have wiped out millions of jobs and created a staggering trade deficit – the world’s largest – our main trading partners all run trade surpluses – this includes China, Germany and Japan while our trade deficit as of 2010 was -$531 billion [136].

Corporations have had a progressively declining tax bill from 4.3% of the GDP in the 1940’s to only 1.9% for an average for the 2000’s and still going down [136].

Manufacturing has gone from making up 30% of the workforce in 1950 to 9% in 2011.

Today CEO pay is 325 times more than the pay of factory workers, a jump from 1980 when it was about 42 times more and 1990 when it was 100 times more [136].

The rich have become progressively richer and richer on the backs of the middle class – Since 2001, tax cuts to the rich have totaled $700 billion according to IRS data. This money lost to the Treasure has added $700 bill to the federal debt – paying the interest on the debt alone will fall heaviest on middle class taxpayers in the coming years and is already showing up in massive cuts to education, social services, law enforcement, fire services[136].

The bottom line: “Over the last four decades, the elite have systematically rewritten the rules to take care of themselves at everyone else’s expense. As postwar U.S. history shows, it doesn’t have to be this way. For decades after World War II, personal income in the United States grew at roughly the same rate for the rich and everyone else, all except for the poorest Americans. During this period, the gap between the rich and the middle class remained about the same… The Federal government collected that tax money and routinely reinvested it in the American people. Veterans were able to go to college, families bought homes for the first time, and government invested in infrastructure projects such as the interstate highway system – the benefits of which all Americans continue to enjoy to this day. All boats rose. But in the 1970’s things began to change. Middle class incomes, after steadily growing for decades, began to flatten….. From 2002 to 2007 the income gains of the top one percent rose 62%, compared to just 4% for the bottom 90% of households (p.18)[136]

Everybody

1997

The Department of Justice estimates that 83 percent of all Americans will be victims of violent crime at least once in their lives.

In 1984 approximately 37 million Americans experienced a criminal victimization and of these 6 million were victims of a violent crime [137] (McCann and Pearlman 1990).

A number of studies in recent years have shown that up to three quarters of the general population in the United States have been exposed to some event in their lifetime that can be defined as traumatic[50, 51, 138] (Green 1994; Kilpatrick and Resnick 1993; Norris 1992).

In one study of young adults in the Midwest, life threat, seeing others killed or badly injured, and physical assault all produced a lifetime rate of post-traumatic stress disorder of around 25 percent of those who had these experiences[49].

In another recent study 39 percent of women who were victims of aggravated assault developed post-traumatic stress disorder as did 35 percent of those who were raped [19].

Post-traumatic stress disorder rarely occurs alone; it most commonly coexists with major depression and substance abuse, but it can coexist with other psychiatric and social problems as well [51].

The effects of trauma are not short-lived. In one follow-up of a disaster, one quarter of the survivors studied showed continuing and significant psychopathology [139].

Less than 20 percent of the earth remains forested; a forested area the size of England is being destroyed each year, and the rate is increasing. Tropical forests containing 40 percent of all species on earth are being cut at the rate of two acres per second [140].

Ten thousand species of plants and animals become extinct every year. Current estimates are that one-fifth of all the species on earth may disappear during the next twenty years [140].

Carbon dioxide is being produced faster than the oceans and remaining plants can absorb it; half of the 20 trillion tons we produce each year remains in the air [141].

Soil is being turned into sterile dust that is washed or blown away at the rate of five tons per person per year, which will leave no soil left in a hundred years [140].

As of 1989 there were more than 50,000 nuclear weapons on the planet, with a total firepower of more than 6,000 times the firepower generated by the entire Second World War. It would only take several dozen, exploded in major American cities to stop the United States from existing as a modern society [140].

At least 22 nations have the capacity to make chemical weapons [140].

Acid rain is killing lakes and pine forests in North American and Europe. At least one-third of west German forests have been damaged by acid rain[140].

Population growth curves indicate that there will be more than 6 billion people on earth by the year 2000 and 8 billion by 2025. Before 1960 basic biological systems stayed ahead of population demands but since the 1970s the renewal of life-supporting resources has continued to decline while population has increased, resulting in a downward spiral leading to increasing poverty, starvation, and social instability [140].

One billion out of 5 billion of the world's people are classified as insufficiently nourished. More than 35,000 children die each day from hunger-related causes [140].

In the United States, the wealthiest of all nations, more than 1 million people are homeless during a year and more than 100,000 of those are children [140].

The Vietnam War continues to affect the lives of 500,000 to 800,000 Vietnam era veterans and their families. Of the 8,861 million Jews living in Europe before WWII fewer than 600,000 escaped death, 75,000 from the death camps. The genocide of the Cambodians was responsible for 2 million deaths. Since 1975 more than 700,000 Southeast Asian refugees have come to the United States after having been severely traumatized, including being tortured [137]. In the 1970s in Argentina, 9,000 to 30,000 people were tortured and killed [142].

An estimated total of 170 million human beings have been destroyed by wars and totalitarian genocide in the twentieth century-what former National Security Officer to President Carter, Brzezinki has called "megadeath" [143].

2013

In the past decade, violence continues to impact all of us:

The WHO reports that 1.6 million people lose their lives every year to violence. One fifth were due to armed conflict, a third the result of homicide, and half were suicides [131].

Violence costs all of us, and some more than others. People who have been victims of domestic or sexual violence or childhood abuse or neglect experience more health problems, more visits to the hospital, and higher health care costs [131] .

520,000 people were killed as a result of interpersonal violence in 2000 [131].

In countries around the world where youth homicide rates are over 10 per 100,000, these countries are usually experiencing social or economic changes. Injury makes significant impact as well; for every death there are generally 20-40 young people requiring hospital care [131].

Globally, about 5-10 percent of men and an alarming 20 percent of women have experienced some form of childhood sexual abuse [131]

In the past decade, natural disasters affected more than 200 million people and killed 70,000 in the Asian Pacific region of the world [144]. Other disasters included the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, and many more around the world.

The latest data shows that by 2007, America’s top 1 percent of earners received 23 percent of the nation’s total income—almost triple their 8 percent share in 1980[145].

During the 1950s and ’60s, CEOs of major American companies took home about 25 to 30 times the wages of the typical worker. After the 1970s, the two pay scales diverged. In 1980, the big-company CEO took home roughly 40 times; by 1990, it was 100 times. By 2007, just before the Great Recession, CEO pay packages had ballooned to about 350 times what the typical worker earned [145]

The Department of Defense last year told Congress of plans to sell up to $103 billion in weapons to overseas buyers, a staggering rise from an average of $13 billion a year between 1995 and 2005, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Myles Walton. Signed agreements have tripled since 2000 [146].

The American population has lost discussion partners from both kin and outside the family. “The largest losses, however, have come from the ties that bind us to community and neighborhood”. The general image is one of an already densely connected, close, homogeneous set of ties slowly closing in on itself, becoming smaller, more tightly interconnected, more focused on the very strong bonds of the nuclear family (spouses, partners, and parents) (p.371) [147]

In 1997, 31% of Americans thought that climate change and global warming concerns were exaggerated according to a Gallup poll. By 2010, 48% believed that claims about global warming are exaggerated [148]

Meanwhile, despite American skepticism, as of October of 2011,

the sea level is rising due to melting glacier ice,

the arctic sea ice is melting and is about half the thickness of 1950,

in the past 100 years glaciers all over the world have decreased in size and so has the permafrost,

sea –surface temperatures are warming resulting in the death of about a quarter of the world’s coral reefs in the last few decades,

the temperatures of large lakes are warming,

heavier rainfall is causing more flooding in many regions while extreme drought is increasing and

crops are withering; e

ecosystems are changing rapidly;

hurricanes have changed in frequency and strength; t

here are more frequent heat waves;

seawater is become more acidic [149]

Pretty overwhelming isn't it? No wonder so many of us feel confused, anxious, and helpless. How in the world do we do anything about problems that are a catalogue of the ills of humankind, many of which reach far back into our prehistory, others of which are, apparently, an inevitable outcome of our industrialized, technologically advanced society? I will not pretend to have all the answers to such very large questions but I do think that our work with victims of violence have given us some hints of answers, or at least, a better way of asking the questions.

SANE SOCIETIES?

“Our jails and prisons are filled with criminals. Our institutions are filled with insane. Our hospitals are filled with cripples-cripples mangled by war. Wars are made by bullies. Bullies are made by fear. And this kind of fear is made by injury to the child, physical or emotional injury when the child is too young, too helpless, to be able to protect himself (p.337)[150].”

James Clark Moloney, M.D. 1949, The Magic Cloak: A Contribution to the Psychology of Authoritarianism

1.Straus, M.A., Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families. 1994, New York: Lexington Books.

2.Lewin, T., Parents poll shows child abuse to be more common., in New York Times. 1995: New York.

4.Sedlak, A.J. and D.D. Broadhurst, Executive Summary of the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect. 1996, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect: Washington, D.C.

61.Schwab, C.W., Presidential address, 6th Scientific Assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. January 14. 1993.

62.Callahan, C.M. and F.P. Rivara, Urban high school youths and handguns, a school based survey. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1992. 267: p. 3038.

63.Russell, D., Philadelphia Daily News, 1993: p. 3.

64.Kellerman, A.L. and D.T. Reay, Protection or peril? An analysis of firearm related deaths in the home. New England Journal of Medicine, 1986. 314: p. 1557.

65.Brent, D.A., et al., The presence and accessibility of firearms in the homes of adolescent suicides, a case control study. . Journal of the American Medical Association, 1991. 266(21): p. 2989-2995.

70.MacInnis, L., The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said. August 28, http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/28/us-world-firearms-idUSL2834893820070828. 2007: Reuters.

71.The Graduate Institute of International Studies, Small arms survey, 2007. 2007, Cambridge University Press: New York.

72.Fox, J.A. and M.W. Zawitz, Homicide trends in the United States. 2007, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice.

73.Mahoney, T.H., Homicide in Canada, 2010. 2010, Statistics Canada.

74.Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, 2006: Uniform crime report. 2007, U.S. Department of Justice.

75.Carroll, J., Gun ownership and use in America. 2005, Gallup Poll.

76.Lemaire, J., The Cost of Firearm Deaths in the United States: Reduced Life Expectancies and Increased Insurance Costs. The Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2005. 72(3): p. 359-374.

90.Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Adults with co-occuring serious mental illness and a substance abuse disorder, in National Survey on Drug Use and Health. 2004, Office of Applied Studies.

142.Staub, E., The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence. 1989, New York: Cambridge University Press.

143.Brzezinski, Z., Out of control: global turmoil on the eve of the 21st century. . 1993, New York: Charles Scribner's & Sons.

144.United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Statistical yearbook for Asia and the Pacific: Environment, natural disasters. 2011 [cited 2012 August 22]; Available from: http://www.unescap.org/stat/data/syb2011/II-Environment/Natural-disasters.asp.

Curriculum

A Trauma-Informed Psychoeducational Group Curriculum

S.E.L.F. represents the four nonlinear, key areas of recovery that provide an organizing framework for the complex problems presented by trauma survivors, by families with problems, and by chronically stressed organizations.

Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies

Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Service Delivery Systems

Restoring Sanctuary: A New Operating System for Trauma-Informed Systems of Care

SanctuaryWeb.com

SanctuaryWeb.com is your resource to gain insight into The Sanctuary Model. Research and purchase S.E.L.F Curriculums. Browse and read published articles, as well as, purchase books written by Dr. Sandra L. Bloom.

Sandra L. Bloom, M.D.Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University

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